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Driven by stronger policy support and ambitious climate targets announced during the COP26 climate talks in November, global renewable electricity capacity is forecast to increase by more than 60 per cent between 2020 and 2026, reaching more than 4,800GW. The addition of exceptionally high capacity will become the “new normal” in 2022, with renewables accounting for 90 per cent of new power capacity expansion, according to IEA.
How much the world achieved at the Glasgow climate talks – and what happens now – depends in large part on where you live.
In island nations that are losing their homes to sea level rise, and in other highly vulnerable countries, there were bitter pills to swallow after global commitments to cut emissions fell far short of the goal to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7°F). For large middle-income countries, like India and South Africa, there were signs of progress on investments needed for developing clean energy. In the developed world, countries still have to internalize, politically, that bills are coming due – both at home and abroad – after decades of delaying action on climate change. The longer the delay, the more difficult the transition will be.
Annual climate summits are a flurry of new corporate commitments, and Glasgow was no exception. However, what set this year apart was the level of skepticism from participants, activists and even companies about whether these pledges would result in sufficient and measurable action. The world is expected to reach a 1.5 degrees C rise by the early 2030s, according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. Whether we limit warming to this level and prevent the most severe climate impacts depends on actions taken this decade.
Business can be a force for good, innovating and scaling solutions to climate change. Or it can perpetuate outdated systems that profit from practices that threaten our collective future. In a speech given at the climate summit, Ugandan youth activist Vanessa Nakate urged corporate leaders to, “Show us your trustworthiness. Show us your honesty. I am here to say: Prove us wrong.” So, what did the private sector promise at this year’s conference? These are three key topics that stood out for us at COP26. November was a big month for climate action. Attending leaders, diplomatic delegations, or recorded messages — practically every nation had some presence at this month’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. Even North Korea was represented, with its Ambassador to the United Kingdom attending a speech by South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Leaders across the world agree that it is time for climate action. There is much to lose long-term in failing to take appropriate measures and much to gain if green technology is both economically competitive and energy efficient. However, questions remain for emerging industrial economies attempting to balance decarbonization with development. After all, the West’s rise to economic dominance was fueled by hydrocarbons – and now the developed world refuses to fund hydrocarbon projects even if they address energy poverty in emerging markets. The business of funding disruptive businesses is booming—and is itself being disrupted
YOUNG COMPANIES everywhere were preparing for doomsday in March 2020. Sequoia Capital, a large venture-capital (VC) firm, warned of Armageddon; others predicted a “Great Unwinding”. Startups like Airbnb trimmed their workforce in expectation of an economic bloodbath. Yet within months the gloom had lifted and a historic boom had begun. America unleashed a raft of stimulus measures; the dominance of tech firms increased as locked-down consumers spent even more of their lives online. A wave of companies, including Airbnb, took advantage of the bullish mood by listing on the stockmarket. The market capitalisation of venture-capital-backed firms that went public last year amounted to a record $200bn; it is on course to reach $500bn in 2021.
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Using a Science-based Approach to Reduce Your Company's Emissions and Improve Customer Loyalty15/9/2021 Science-based targets provide a clearly defined pathway for companies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, helping prevent the worst impacts of climate change and future-proof business growth. Targets are considered ‘science-based’ if they are in line with what the latest climate science deems necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Large corporations and brand names are increasingly aware of the risks posed by rising greenhouse gas emissions, and they have taken up their own fight against climate change, viewing this with a long-term perspective and concern about how it will affect their businesses and their licence to operate in future. There are constant pressures from consumers for larger corporations to take ownership of their greenhouse gas emissions and provide proof of reductions through their annual reports. This public pressure will gradually cascade downwards to the providers of services and products for these corporations, where Scope 31 emissions take place and contribute significantly to global CO2 emissions. Entrepreneurs are the risk-takers of the business environment. They find an existing problem, find a solution and provide services or products to resolve the issue. Big tech companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google, Apple, Samsung, Tesla and Microsoft solved the issue of underdeveloped technological evolution. These companies and their founding entrepreneurs did something that bought a technological and societal revolution.
Why did they succeed in accomplishing such high standards of achievements despite obstacles on their way up? The answer is quite simple — by taking huge risks and by being bold in their decisions and goals. Coaching is similar in helping you find your true vision and aligning them to your core values and purpose.
1. Stay focused
Entrepreneurs should always define their company’s purpose within the context of its customers. Mission, vision, operations, messaging — everything should be built around the customer. Often in business — especially since digital technologies introduced new agility to industries — we hear the word “pivot”. Reacting to changing markets is certainly tempting when you operate in a competitive space but leaping before you are ready is not prudent. Keeping your focus often means saying “no” more often than you say “yes”. In the era of digital transformation, more and more businesses do not begin life in a factory, mall, or high street; they are born in the cloud and surrounded by opportunities to build out their capacities. But always remember the fundamentals. Any pivoting should align with customer needs, with the value proposition of the change put front and centre. None of this best practice stops you from prototyping and experimenting, but such testing should occur in such a way as to not drain resources from your core areas. If your experiments bear fruit, then they can deliver value in future operations, but your feasibility studies should not be thought of as core operations. It’s hard to build a startup. Around 90% fail, usually in the first five years. Even venture-backed startups never earn a return 75% of the time. This presents a dilemma: Do you risk your time and money building a startup from scratch or acquire one with a proven track record?
Failory interviewed founders of over 80 failed startups and found the most common reasons for failing were product-market fit (34%), marketing (22%) and teams (18%). Why spend a fortune and years of your life overcoming these challenges when you could acquire a startup that’s already conquered them? That said, acquiring or building depends on whether you’re a builder or scaler. You might build if that’s what you love and where your expertise lies. However, if you’re a scaler, you should acquire a startup that dovetails with your skill-set and lets you sync and scale with ease.
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